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Electric Guitar Amps

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Electric Guitar Amps (guitar lessons & info)

Electric guittar Amps Electric guitars do not produce any audible sounds, they have electro-magnetic "Pickups" that convert the vibration of the strings into an electrical signal. The electric guitar is plugged into an Amplifier (Amp), which produces sounds from the vibration signal it receives. All electric guitars require an amp or other electric amplification device. Acoustic-electric guitars, however, do make audible sounds - as they are essentially acoustic guitars with a built in pickup microphone. You can plug an acoustic-electric guitar to an amp to increase the volume, or to use guitar effects with it. Guitar amps are rated in Watts, which is the amount of power they draw. The amount of power is directly proportional to the volume level a guitar amp is capable of; the higher the wattage, the louder the amp. For home use a 10 or 20 Watt amp should be sufficient. Concert halls use multiple 1000+ Watt amps, but they are huge spaces. Guitar amps have a speaker in the casing; and amps with higher power ratings have larger speakers, which increases the overall size of the amp case. You may have noticed huge stacks of speakers behind your favorite rock guitarist (see picture above). (continued below)		(continued from left bottom) Several types of guitar amps are available today, and come with many features and effects built-in. Volume and tone controls, of course, are standard - that is how you control the amount and tone of sound. The Reverb effect is available in many guitar amps, this simple and elegant effect provides a warmth to guitar music. Another effect that is commonly available in guitar amps is the Distortion effect. Using Pre and Post Gain controls, guitarists can alter the sound of their guitar - from a flat "thunk" to a screeching "wail". If you are lucky enough to have a spouse that also plays guitar, some amps have Dual input jacks - so both of you can play together. For the opposite case, where the spouse keeps yelling at you (or anyone else) to TURN THAT DARN THING DOWN, some amps have a Headphone jack - so you can plug in and tune out. Can you dig it? I knew that you could. And for those play-along guitarists, some amps have a CD Input jack - so you can plug your CD player in and play along with your favorite music. Guitar Effects<<<Previous Next>>>Guitar Care (continued below)
The original guitar amps (and all electronic devices of that day) used Vacuum Tubes, which were the precursors to our modern day miniature transistor. Vacuum tubes were delicate (they were made of glass) and prone to overheating. Today, most guitar amps are "solid state" - using transistors and other silicon chip technology that is sturdy and uses less power. However, the sound quality from a tube amp is far superior to modern solid state amps - so tube amps are still available. Today's tube amps tend to be more expensive, and cost more to maintain (in replacing burnt out vacuum tubes) - they are usually the choice of professional musicians. For home and hobby use, cheaper solid state guitar amps are just fine. (continued to right top)

Learning Guitar Chords (guitar lessons & info)

Learning Guitar Chords Chords are the complex sound created by two or more individual music notes. There are an infinite number of chords possible on the guitar, here we will just learn a few basic (and simple) beginner guitar chords. Click to read about guitar fret notes. The first chord we will discover is the E Major chord. The string layout on the guitar allows us to play some of the component notes that make up the chord more than once. The usual way to play the E Major chord is shown here. The numbers indicate which finger you will use to fret that note, (1) is your index finger, (2) is your middle finger, (3) is your ring finger and (4) is your pinky finger (not used in these easy guitar chords however). The O on the left side of the string indicate that string is to be struck in the "O"pen position. Place your fingers at the appropriate frets and strum all six strings together (with a downstroke). Congratulations, you just strummed your first guitar chord! (continued below)		(continued from left bottom) One more chord we will learn is the C Major chord. Place your first, second and third fingers at the frets as shown in the picture. This chord also has the sixth string muted (with an X to indicate DON'T PLAY THIS STRING). Again, don't worry if you hit that string while learning. Strum the five strings together (with a downstroke), you have just played the C Major chord. Try these three chords out, strum each chord four times on downstrokes along with the beats of your metronome. Slow and steady, don't go too fast just yet. Ensure the chord sounds melodious, if any fingers are not pressing down properly, or are touching other strings - you will immediately be able to hear the sound of the chord change. After a few minutes of practice, change your strumming to both directions, go DOWNSTROKE UPSTROKE DOWNSTROKE UPSTROKE in time with your metronome beats. Note we are still doing 4 beats (down up down up) for each chord, slowly increase the speed of your metronome by 10 after a few minutes of practice for each chord. (continued below)
The next chord we will learn is the A Major chord shown here. Place your first, second and third fingers at the frets as shown in the picture. Note the sixth string has an X marked next to it, this means you do NOT want to strike that string. While your are learning you will probably hit that string while strumming, just don't worry about it too much right now. Go ahead and strum the five strings together (with a downstroke), this is the A Major chord. (continued to right top)		Using these basic chords you can now play a simple tune! Play the three chords in this order: A A A A C C C C E E E E and repeat. Note there are four "beats" for each chord, play it with the down up down up rhythm. At first you will have some difficulty in switching between chords, this is perfectly natural. Practice makes perfect, keep your metronome on a slow speed till your fingers get trained. You will find it gets easier with practice, then increase your metronome speed by 10 and keep playing. And most of all, have fun! You are playing the guitar! Next we will learn how to read guitar tab and also how to read guitar sheet music. Learning Guitar Notes<<<Previous Next>>>Read Guitar Tabs

Additional pages about Electric Guitar Amps

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	guitaramps, guitarsheetmusic guitaramps, readguitartabs
	guitaramps, sitemap guitareffects, acousticguitarparts
	guitareffects, acousticguitartypes guitareffects, acousticelectricguitar
	guitareffects, guitartechniques guitareffects, basicguitarlessons

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